Timoleon Oscar Johnston (1849-1899)

From the 1898 Quarter Centennial Anniversary Souvenir of the So. Illinois State Normal University.

    Curiously named Illinois native Timoleon Oscar Johnston joins an ever-growing list of political figures who've been named in honor of a prominent statesman of ancient Greece; in this case Timoleon, a Corinthian general who led military forces to victory over Dionysius and Hicetas after the siege of Syracuse. Timoleon would lead the Greek city-state of Syracuse for several years until his death in 337 B.C.  

   Having the given name of a distinguished Greek statesman proved to be appropriate, as Timoleon O. Johnston would go on to wide repute in Ogle County, Illinois, being the owner and editor of the Ogle County Reporter from the mid-1870s until his death. Also active in Ogle County politics, Johnston served as an alderman for the city of Oregon, Illinois and would later be elected to one term as that city's mayor. The story of this oddly named man begins in Franklin, Wisconsin, where he was born on June 30, 1849. One of four children born to Wesley and Sarah Phelps Johnston, Timoleon's education took place at the Sinasawa Mound College in Wisconsin and later at the Rock River Seminary in Mt. Morris, Illinois.

   The Johnston family would relocate back to Illinois (having resided here in the 1830s and 40s), and during adolescence Timoleon Johnston began to learn the printing trade. Once finished he left Illinois for Vinton, Iowa, where he would join the staff of the Vinton Semi-Weekly Eagle. His time in Vinton also saw him wed Mary E. Shockley (1850-1931) on December 30, 1869, and the couple later had a total of three children: May Aileen (born 1871), John Phelps (1873-1926) and Lillian Eidola (born 1878).

   After three years of residency in Vinton Johnston and his family relocated to Ogle County, Illinois, where in 1872 he "purchased an interest" in the Ogle County Reporter. For part of 1872 he was partnered with W.H. Gardner, and after a period of several months purchased the entire paper, and as "sole proprietor" continued to oversee the paper as both editor and publisher until his death in 1899. A longtime member of the Illinois Press Association, Johnson was named as a delegate to meetings of the National Editorial Association on four occasions and would also hold the post of Secretary of the Illinois Republican Editorial Association.

    Timoleon Johnston first entered Ogle County political life in the late 1870s, winning election as an alderman for the city of Oregon in 1877. He would serve three further terms as alderman in 1878, 1879, and 1880, and in 1883 was elected as Mayor of Oregon. Little is known of Johnson's tenure as mayor, excepting that it was a term of two years. Prior to his ascension to the mayor's office, he had twice been a delegate to the Illinois State Republican State Conventions in 1878 and 1882.

    Active in several fraternal groups in Ogle County, Timoleon Johnston was for many years affiliated with the Ogle County Old Settler's Association and served as its vice president in 1896. He was also a member of the Royal Arch Masons and Knights Templar, Odd-Fellows, and the International Order of Red-Men. Early in 1897, Johnston was appointed by then Illinois Governor John Riley Tanner as a trustee for the Southern Illinois State Normal University, where he would serve until his death on April 2, 1899, a few months short of his 50th birthday. He was survived by his wife of twenty-nine years, Mary, who, following her death in 1931, was interred alongside her husband at the Riverview Cemetery in Oregon, Illinois.

   

Portrait from the First Decennium of the National Editorial Association of the United States, 1896.

From the Forreston Herald, April 8, 1899.

Boine Wilmer Fuller (1904-1983)

Portrait from the Lodi News-Sentinel, April 13, 1954.

    Popularly known by the nickname "Spud", Boine Wilmer Fuller was for over five decades a well-known businessman and public figure in the city of Lodi, California, serving as the Mayor of that city for one term in the early 1950s. A native of Tombstone, Arizona, "Spud" Fuller was born on April 17, 1904, the son of  Henry W. and Jennie E. Fuller. His early education took place in the state of his birth and he would later graduate from the high school at Globe, Arizona in 1921. 

   In 1921 "Spud" Fuller left Arizona and moved to California, first settling in Marysville. He remained here for nearly a decade and in 1931 resettled in Lodi, where he would take work as a manager of a Western Auto Supply store. Prior to his removal to Lodi Fuller had married in Yuba City to Mattie Belle Reamy (1898-1953), later having a daughter, Joyce Elaine, in 1929. After settling in Lodi Boine and Mattie would become parents to the first set of triplets to be born in the city of Lodi (Boine Raymond, Boyd Edwards, and Barrie Chalmer), their births occurring on Christmas Eve 1936. 

    In the early 1930s, Fuller and E.J. Crescenzi established a sporting and auto accessories store in Lodi, operating under the name of Fuller and Crescenzi. Their partnership would continue until 1944, when it was dissolved and the company underwent a name change to Fuller and Sons, with Fuller as its "sole owner". In 1945 he was elected as President of the Central Valley Sportsman's Council and in the following year began a lengthy connection with Junior League baseball in Lodi, helping to found the Lodi Junior Baseball League. Fuller had earlier helped to establish a youth basketball club in Lodi in 1940, and his devotion to the promotion of youth sport in Lodi later led to his being inducted into the Lodi Sports Hall Fame in 1977.

A cartoon of "Spud" Fuller, printed in the Sept. 16, 1954 edition of the Lodi News-Sentinel.

    Spud Fuller first entered Lodi city politics in March 1954 when he announced his candidacy for the city council. He would win election to that body on April 20, 1954, and shortly after being sworn in was "unanimously selected" as Mayor of Lodi by his fellow city council members, as the Lodi city charter provided that the mayor would "serve in that capacity as long  as a majority of the city council members vote him into office." The Lodi News-Sentinel reported in its April 21st edition that Fuller was entering the office with "mixed emotions", with Fuller stating that:

"I feel great pride, humility and fear in accepting this position.....In fact, I'm scared. Never has the Lodi City Council been faced with such problems as confronts this council."

Boine W."Spud" Fuller with outgoing Lodi Mayor Mabel Richey in 1954.

  Fuller succeeded Lodi's first female mayor, Mabel Richey (1903-1999), who had served two terms in office. Fuller's term extended into 1955 and during his year in office was a prominent booster for the Heart Fund, a health campaign started by the San Joaquin County Heart Association. Fuller would continue to serve on the city council after his term as mayor concluded, his last year of service on the council being in 1958. Widowed in 1953, Fuller would remarry in August 1963 to Lydia Herman (1911-1995), who would survive him upon his death at age 79 on May 26, 1983.  He was later interred at the Lodi Memorial Cemetery, also the resting place of both his wives as well as his infant son Boyd.

Portrait from the Lodi News Sentinel, May 27, 1983

Robah Bascom Kerner (1859-1893)

From the Memorial of Robah Bascom Kerner, published 1894.

  

   The life of Winston, North Carolina lawyer Robah Bascom Kerner shone briefly and brightly in the late 19th century, climaxing with his election as Mayor of Winston, North Carolina in 1892. A lawyer and prominent Odd-Fellow in his native city, Kerner's untimely death from typhoid fever in the year following his election robbed the city of one of its enterprising young citizens. Born in Kernersville, North Carolina on June 3, 1859, Robah Bascom Kerner was the son of Elias and Parthenia Dicks Kerner. He attended schools local to the Kernersville area and also worked on the family farm. He was confirmed as a member of the Moravian Church in Kernersville at age fifteen and at that same age began to teach school in the village of Germanton.

    During his adolescence Kerner continued to teach, eventually moving on to the Boy's Male Academy at Salem, North Carolina. Age sixteen at the time of his entering that school, Kerner taught here until age twenty, afterward beginning study at the University of North Carolina. Around this time he decided upon a career as a lawyer and after returning to the Boy's Academy at Salem would study law under Greensboro Judges Robert P. Dick and John Dillard. Kerner was admitted to practice law in 1882 and two years later married to Jennie F. Donnell (1863-1928). The couple would have two children, Donnell Elias (1888-1889) and Frances Lanier (1891-1893), both of whom died before age two.

    A year prior to his marriage Robah B. Kerner was elected as the solicitor for the Inferior Court and in 1885 he took office as a member of the Winston Board of Aldermen. Around this same period, he was named Secretary of the Board and City Treasurer, as well as attaining high rank in the local Odd-Fellows chapter. A member of the Salem Lodge  No. 36 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Kerner's decade-long affiliation with this chapter saw him reach the ranks of Deputy Grand Master, Junior Warden (1886), Grand High Priest (1887), and Grand Patriarch (1888).

  

Portrait courtesy of www.cityofws.org.

   While still incumbent city treasurer, Robah B. Kerner was elected as Mayor of Winston in February 1892, winning by a "flattering vote." The youngest man elected as Mayor of Winston up to that time, the 32-year-old Kerner's administration lasted only a year and a half, but made several improvements to the city, including the construction of the first city stables; the "curbing and macadamizing" of Winston's most traveled streets; the implementation of new fire ordinances (in the wake of a series of fires that had plagued the city) and the completion of the Winston City Hall. Kerner proved to be a popular mayor with both his constituents and fellow politicians and was even honored by the Board of Aldermen by having his name engraved on a fire engine that had recently been purchased for the city's use.

    The onset of typhoid fever marred the last months of Mayor Kerner's life, although the Memorial on his life (published several months following his death) notes that he continued in his mayoral duties when his health showed improvement. A few weeks before his passing he returned to his parent's home in Kernersville where his health continued to fail, and on September 3, 1893, he and his wife suffered the loss of their daughter Frances Lanier, who was two months short of her second birthday. A little over two weeks later, Robah Bascom Kerner died at age 34, his administration coming to a sudden end after just seventeen months (the shortest in Winston's history.)

   The outpouring of grief for Kerner was immediate. From Winston citizens to members of the Odd-Fellows lodge, Mayor Kerner was memorialized as an "ambitious" and "zealous" public figure, and that

"In his death the city loses a loyal and enterprising citizen, the democratic party a faithful and active worker, his personal friends a staunch and congenial companion, and his home a fond and devoted husband and father."

   Following his death, Kerner was interred at the Kernersville Moravian God's Acre Cemetery, which is also the resting place of both of his children. His wife Jennie survived her husband by over three decades, dying in 1928 at age 65, and later was interred at the same cemetery as her husband.

                                                      From the Richmond, Virginia Times, September 26, 1893.

Clapp Spooner (1824-1899)

  A prominent citizen and financier based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the strangely named Clapp Spooner also served as Mayor of that city from 1863-1864. Although few sources mention him at great length, a fairly substantial overview of Spooner's life was found in America's Successful Men of Affairs, Vol. II published in 1895. The rare portrait of him above (and the only one to be found online) was also discovered in this book.

  Clapp Spooner was born in the village of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire on  June 11, 1824, the third-born son of Charles (1789-1842) and Betsey Powers Spooner (1793-1866), both former residents of Petersham, Massachusetts. Clapp Spooner inherited his odd first name from his paternal grandfather, also named Clapp Spooner (1760-1826). Young Clapp attended common schools local to the Barre, Massachusetts area and as an adolescent found employment as a clerk in a grocery store.

   After leaving behind his clerkship, Spooner joined up with the Thompson and Co. Express in Boston, Massachusetts. In July 1848 he married Harriett Garland, with whom he had one daughter, Anna Garland Spooner (1849-1864). Harriett Spooner died at the age of 26 in April 1852 and in March 1857 Clapp remarried to Catherine Wiley. Spooner's second marriage lasted over thirty years and also saw the births of three more children, Charles Wiley (born 1858), Eliza Towne (born 1861), and Henry Clapp (born 1864).

   During the late 1850s and early 1860s, Clapp Spooner earned a reputation as one of the premier businessmen in New England, eventually working his way up to the position of part owner of the Phillips and Co. Express. In 1854 this company merged with three other independent express companies (including Harnden and Company) to form the famed Adams Express Company, a freight and transport business still in existence today, although it is now known as an equity fund and investment trust. Spooner is listed by the Successful Men of Affairs as one of "the nine organizers of that company and has been identified with it ever since." During the 1870s and 80s, he served as a manager and superintendent of Adams's New England division, and in 1887 he was named as the company's Vice President, serving in this post until 1891.

  While Spooner's business activities dominated most of his life, his involvement in local politics is also a major part of his life story. He was a member of the Bridgeport City Council and in 1863 was elected as the Mayor of Bridgeport. His election to the above offices is remarked by America's Successful Men of Affairs as having an impact on Bridgeport, as "the city has had a great benefit of mature judgment and great business capacity." A roster of Bridgeport mayors (bearing Spooner's name) has been provided below.

   While his involvement in politics was rather short, Spooner is mentioned as being a staunch Republican, and throughout the remainder of his life maintained a "keen interest in political matters, local and national." As he entered his twilight years, Spooner continued a string of successful business endeavors, including being a director of the Hartford Steam and Boiler Co., a past director of the American Steel Company of Bridgeport, past director of the Connecticut National Bank of Bridgeport, and one of the directors of the Bridgeport Brass Company.

  As a result of his numerous financial interests, Spooner became one of Bridgeport's wealthiest residents, and with this wealth came one of Spooner's most lasting attributes, Brooklawn Park. This 200-acre piece of land was bought and developed by Spooner into "the finest suburb of Bridgeport", and he spent the remainder of his life improving and redesigning this landscape to attract Bridgeport's wealthiest and most well-known citizens.

   Clapp Spooner continued to be socially active well into his seventh decade, and this activity was only curtailed by an accident he suffered on the streets of Bridgeport in 1896. In July of that year, he was struck down by a team of horses being driven by a drunk driver. Spooner was on his way to board a trolley car when the accident occurred, and it is mentioned that he was "knocked down by a horse and trampled upon", resulting in serious injury. This accident eventually led to Spooner being confined to his home for the remainder of his life, and he died at his estate on July 30, 1899, at age 75. His cause of death was listed by his New York Times death notice (posted below) as a "general breaking down as a result of the accident." He was interred alongside his wife Catherine (who had predeceased him in 1890) at the Mountain Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum in Bridgeport.

                                            From the New York Times, July 31, 1899 edition.

Montressor Tyler Allen (1844-1897)

    A prominent 19th-century resident of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Montressor Tyler Allen was born in that same county on May 20, 1844, being the son of George Washington and Mary Tyler Allen. Sources give varying accounts as to his actual birth year (1842, 1843, 1844 or 1845) but most periodicals of the day give the correct year as 1844. He would receive his education at the Warren Academy and also underwent private tutoring. Allen graduated from the Warren Academy and for a time "engaged in mercantile work in Woburn."
   At age 20 Montressor Allen enlisted as a private in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War, and after returning home from service pursued a degree in law. He married in 1865 to Julia Frances Peaslee and the couple remained childless through the entirety of their nearly three decades of marriage. In the mid-1870s Allen resumed his law studies when he enrolled in the prestigious Boston University Law School, graduating from that institution in 1878.
   Following his admittance to the state bar in 1879 Allen established his law practice in Boston. In 1887 he won election to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives (representing Middlesex County) and served in the session of 1888-89. During his term, Allen chaired the House Committee on Railroads and also held seats on the joint committee on expenditures and the committee on finance.

                                                     Montressor Allen during his later years.


   Following his service in the legislature, Allen returned to his native town of Woburn, Massachusetts, later serving stints as city solicitor and registrar of voters. In 1895 he was elected as the Mayor of Woburn, serving one term in that office. In addition to being a public official, Allen was also a member of the Mt. Horeb Masonic Lodge in Woburn and is listed by his obituary as having owned a substantial amount of real-estate throughout the Woburn vicinity.
   Sources mentioning Montressor T. Allen make light of him as one of Woburn's favorite sons, with the Boston Daily Globe noting that he "has for years been sought in a social way, in particular for his peculiar aptness in address. He was a wit and storyteller with hardly a peer; was eloquent and impressive in all that he undertook."
   In 1897 Allen's health began to rapidly fail and in the month preceding his demise was sent to a Boston sanitarium to be cared for by physicians. His stay in the sanitarium lasted two weeks, and he was eventually brought home to Woburn, where he died on December 24, 1897, at age 53. His obituary (posted below) lists his cause of death as organic disease of the heart, and he was survived by his wife, mother, and siblings. It is presumed that he was buried somewhere in the Woburn vicinity, but an exact burial location is unknown at the time of this writing. The rare portrait of Allen shown at the top of this article appeared in the 1890 work One of A Thousand, a biographical and portrait resource of prominent Massachusetts citizens.

Montressor Allen's obituary from the Boston Daily Globe, December 24, 1897.